Relative circular navigation guidance for the impact angle control problem

A new homing navigation guidance law is presented for a pursuer to intercept a moving target with a prescribed impact angle: the impact angle control problem. The proposed guidance law can solve the impact angle control problem for virtually every initial geometry of pursuer and target on a plane and any desired impact attitude angle. The impact angle error of the proposed law is presented in a closed form. In addition it is shown that the acceleration command is finite even at impact time. A comparative study with existing techniques is performed both analytically and numerically to investigate the performance and properties of the new law.